Here’s a new, non-regular segment for you that perhaps will help me cope with the grieving process of no longer living in London: English Things I Miss, subtitle, Though Not Necessarily So Much That I Would Move Back to the God-Forsaken Land of Clouds and Complaining.
First English Thing I Miss:
The Toast Rack
It might seem random [...]
Occasionally, when I am just drifting off to sleep, or while I am in savansa at yoga class, I have a sudden flash from my memory. It’s a sensory flash, like a living photograph.
Lately those flashes have been of London, of my home around Maida Vale,
and of the color of the sky and the light [...]
I am running back today, to London, for a quick breath.
I am looking for my feet and for my friends. For the tiny space of quiet in the corners, and the for the push of the people against my shoulders.
I am ready for the dampness and ready for the attention I need to pay [...]
Or… Hello, lovely Idlewild, so long dodgy Truscott Arms…
Somewhere between the time Gordon Ramsay circled the Warrington last autumn in his 4×4 and this week’s first big test match at Lord’s, the Ruby Group of London has SOMEHOW managed to buy, close, gut, decorate, and re-open the council-housing hangout Truscott Arms on Shirland Road as [...]
At a pub, I learned the English are hard to get to know.
But once you know them, it’s hard to let them go. And they don’t let go easy. They are like old dogs. Completely faithful. But they probably won’t leap up when you come in.
In a pub I learned how beautiful cigarette smoke is, [...]
If you must leave someplace, you should leave it sad to go.
After we left our Randolph Avenue flat, we were desperate to stay in Maida Vale. It isn’t the best place in London, just as any single person isn’t the best person in the world.
No. Just like a person,
God, it’s gorgeous right now in Maida Vale… I just glanced down Clifton Gardens one afternoon and, suddenly, every tree is in leaf and the air is full of the smell of hyacinths in bloom.
Ahhh, spring… a time for freshness, renewal, of kicking open doors, shaking out rugs, polishing windowpanes, letting in the light.
Meanwhile back [...]
For those still looking for Maida Vale’s favourite Thai restaurant, Ben’s Thai, formerly of the Warrington Hotel, don’t worry, it hasn’t gone far.
Under the new name, Dang at Ben’s Thai, Dang and her clan have moved above another pub, the Robert Browning, on Clifton Road. This gritty old man’s boozer, situated on a properly posh [...]
Days and days of beauty and wonder in London…
Shhhh!! … Can’t talk just now…
Too busy exchanging ideas with this flower and listening to Cary…
“All the lights on and you are alive
But you can’t point the way to your heart
So sublime, when the stars are aligned
But you don’t know
You don’t know the greatness you are
“Cause Blue [...]
Despite the fact that Ben’s Thai in the Warrington closed JANUARY 31, and Ramsay Holdings have owned all of the Warrington Hotel since October 31, 2006, many guests are still caught unawares, wandering up the stairs of the saloon bar for that reliable local Thai in Maida Vale.
If you are one of the many who [...]
Christmas in London is here… though it isn’t quite what I am used to from home in Iowa.
This weekend, my sister and her family (and likely my parents too) are out on the hunt for their Christmas tree.
They do it the way you see in old movies: out to tree farms in their boots in [...]
So you are tired of your tree? Sick of all the WATERING?
All the pouring of water, the dampening of soil, and the decreasing of naturally dry dirt surface area bringing you down?
Are you just too poncy and lazy to water your plants, and nothing else?
Getting carpral tunnel from lifting a water jug once a week?
Feeling [...]
I find myself looking up and around a great deal in the walk from our flat to the places we go every day and every week:
The Tube
The Dry Cleaners
The Coffee Place
The Pub
The Bank
The Shops, for food
The Wine Store
The Corner Eatery
Here are a few images of what I see, around here.
I was heading toward the [...]
One day it rains. And then you walk by a tree and you see this.
The winter in London is a long played note. Yet, there are reasons to love it here. Three are:
1. Green grass, no matter how little rainfall
2. Yummy Chinese food
3. Live music everyday, even in the Tube stations
But the winter is long. [...]
